The Forza Blackburn Fund was an unlisted property fund which held a massive 43,046m² (4.30 hectare) landholding at 15-33 Alfred Street and 10 Ashburn Place in Blackburn Victoria. The Property comprised two separate two-level offices/warehouses with 21,947m² of Net Lettable Area (NLA), and 231 at-grade car parks.
The primary land holding of 41,460m² (10.25 acre) with 20,259m² of NLA and 210 at-grade car parks was purchased for $31,500,000. It was acquired given its strong income, the size of its landholding and the strategic nature of the site which is closely located to the Blackburn Train Station, the Blackburn town centre and other important local infrastructure.
The Property produced strong income and we leveraged the strong price growth in industrial property to create attractive risk adjusted returns for investors
In March 2019, the Fund acquired an additional adjoining property in Ashburn Place for $3,200,000 given its strategic attributes which allowed secondary access/egress to the main site.
During the time of ownership, the Fund undertook a re-leasing and repositioning strategy which saw all major tenants extend their leases along with a significant upgrade to the existing vacant office space.
In addition, the Fund constructed an additional 2,400m² rock climbing centre on the site, which increased cash distributions to investors and improved the capital value of the Fund. Ultimately, the industrial property market pricing moved very swiftly during the period of ownership and after an assessment of holding risk the Property was divested to an institutional property owner. The Fund generated an IRR (net of fees) of 14% and an equity multiple of 1.62x.
